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School Marketing Blog

The professional school marketing manager needs to be up-to-date with the latest school marketing strategies and resources to successfully implement the school marketing plan. This school marketing blog enables school marketing professionals to engage in blog discussions relating to the school marketing issues of today. The 'School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed)', 2011, by Bryan Foster, forms the basis for most of these blog posts.

The School Marketing Plan is strongly linked to the school marketing budget - there is often a reluctance to offer the necessary capital to allow this to be effective. Below are four key strategies to make this budget work - and work well!

1. Invest During Good Times - Financial and Otherwise

2. Invest During Difficult Financial Times and Other Difficult Situations

3. A Realistic Budget is Necessary

4. If Needed - a Shared Budget Across Schools or Regions

1. Invest During Good Times - Financial and Otherwise

Good times are the
best times to invest. This enables the school's reputation to be
enhanced considerably. Resting on the laurels of the past can become an
expensive exercise when the reputation is forgotten or when a new
challenge comes from other competing interests, including other schools
and distractions within society.

2. Invest During Difficult Financial
Times and Other Difficult Situations

However, all schools need to market themselves at whatever
stage of the success cycle at which they find themselves. Do not give
up in the tough times - all schools will experience these throughout
their history. It is a most important time to market, fight for the
dollars so you don not get left behind in the marketplace.

3. A Realistic Budget is Necessary

Various
people within each school community have differing views on the amount
which should be afforded to the marketing budget. School leaders need to be aware that the implementation
of a good marketing plan would inevitably drive up community engagement and
enrolment numbers!

In today's dollar values spending $20 000 - $40
000 for an average sized independent school (of
between 600 and 900 students) would be a good investment. This would
need to be proportionately reviewed according to overall School Budget,
the number of enrolments and the overall need of the school to build and
maintain enrolment numbers.

When the marketing plan is being developed for a
specified year, key stakeholders, particularly the School Principal,
School Manager and the School Marketing Manager, need to assess the
budget requirements. The budget will have a significant impact on a plan
for any year. The budget includes all areas of the plan which incur
expenses.

4.
If Needed - a Shared Budget Across Schools or Regions

Shared marketing budgets across a number of schools may be another way of efficiently
budgeting.
This could be regionalized e.g.:
• a combined regional budget to be shared amongst schools or
• a RMM (Regional Marketing Manager) implementing the whole
marketing plan for the region and individual schools, which are only
required to develop their own essentials such as newsletters.

Or
it may be a number of localized schools working together and sharing the
budget.

A shared budget may see different schools marketing
specific aspects for the cluster e.g.
• one may concentrate on Arts / Sport Education within the cluster
• another may market the varying sorts of key curriculum and
extra-curricular areas on offer and differing times for each
• another may emphasize the pastoral, welfare and social justice
aspects within the cluster.

For some schools this may be the only
way to begin marketing or to maintain a budget in any form what-so-ever.

Caution
- even though this may appear to save financially, it takes away from
the individual uniqueness of each school. Marketing is often more
successful when emphasizing a uniqueness.

A professionally run
school will always allow for an appropriate marketing budget to assist
with promoting the school - both in good and difficult times.

The 'Key Strategies to Link the School Marketing Budget to a Successful School Marketing Plan' blog post was written
by Bryan Foster, author of School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), (2011)
- the paperback and ebook manual for school communications and marketing
personnel - 340 pages of easy to read and implement summarized
points - allowing for a considerably large number of quality strategies and examples to be
detailed - with copyright
remaining GDPL. Book available from Amazon.com and Createspace.com

“
Anyone who is interested in developing a successful school marketing plan will find an excellent and user friendly resource in - School Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (3rd ed), written by Bryan Foster.
The wealth of experience, knowled..”